Section 3

Origin and Progress of Freemasonry 17

and modern; and to discuss minutely their character
and organization would occupy a distinct treatise. The
Baron de Sainte Croix has written two large volumes
on the subject, and yet left it unexhausted.

14. These two divisions of the Masonic Institution
which were defined in the ninth paragraph, namely, the
pure or primitive Freemasonry among the Jewish de-
scendants of the patriarchs, who are called, by way of
distinction, the Noachites, or descendants of Noah, be-
cause they had not forgotten nor abandoned the teach-
ings of their great ancestor, and the spurious Free-
masonry practised among the pagan nations, flowed
down the stream of time in parallel currents, often
near together, but never commingling.

15. But these two currents were not always to be
kept apart, for, springing, in the long anterior ages,
from one common fountain — that ancient priesthood
of whom we have already spoken in the eighth prop-
osition— and then dividing into the pure and spurious
Freemasonry of antiquity, and remaining separated for
centuries upon centuries, they at length met at the
building of the great temple of Jerusalem, and were
united, in the instance of the Israelites under King
Solomon, and the Tyrians under Hiram, King of Tyre,
and Hiram Abif .

The spurious Freemasonry, it is true, did not then
and there cease to exist. On the contrary, it lasted for
centuries subsequent to this period; for it was not until
long after, and in the reign of the Emperor Theodosius,
that the pagan Mysteries were finally and totally
abolished. But by the union of the Jewish or pure
Freemasons and the Tyrian or spurious Freemasons at
Jerusalem^ there was a mutual infusion of their re-

* See note to page 86.

18 Symbolism of Freemasonry

spective doctrines and ceremonies, which eventually-
ended in the abolition of the two distinctive systems
and the establishment of a new one, that may be con-
sidered as the immediate prototype of the present
institution.

Hence, many Masonic students, going no farther
back in their investigations than the facts announced
in this fifteenth proposition, are content to find the
origin of Freemasonry at the temple of Solomon. But
if our theory be correct, the truth is that it there re-
ceived, not its birth, but only a new modification of its
character. The legend of the third degree — the golden
legend, the legenda aurea — of the Craft was there
adopted by pure Freemasonry, which before had no
such legend, from spurious Freemasonry. But the
legend had existed under other names and forms, in all
the Mysteries, for ages before. The doctrine of im-
mortality, which had hitherto been taught by the
Noachites simply as an abstract proposition, was thence-
forth to be impressed by a symbolic lesson — the sym-
bol of Hiram the Builder was to become forever the
distinctive feature of Freemasonry.

16. But another important modification was effected
in the Masonic system at the building of the temple.
Previous to the union which then took place, the pure
Freemasonry of the Noachites had always been specu-
lative, but resembled the present organization in no
other way than in the cultivation of the same abstract
principles of divine truth.

17. The Tyrians, on the contrary, were architects by
profession. As their leaders were disciples of the school
of the spurious Freemasonry, they, for the first time,
at the temple of Solomon, when they united with their
Jewish contemporaries, infused into the speculative

Origin and Progress of Freemasonry 19

science which was practised by the latter, the elements
of an operative art.

18. Therefore the system continued thenceforward,
for ages, to present the commingled elements of opera-
tive and speculative Masonry. We see this in the
Collegia Fabrorum, or Colleges of Artificers, first estab-
lished at Rome by Numa, and which were certainly of
a Masonic form in their organization; in the Jewish
sect of the Essenes, who wrought as well as prayed, and
who are claimed to have been the descendants of the
temple builders, and also, and still more prominently,
in the Traveling Freemasons of the middle ages, who
identify themselves by their very name with their
modern successors, and whose societies were composed
of learned men who thought and wrote, and of workmen
who labored and built. So for a long time Freemasonry
continued to be both operative and speculative.

19. But another change was to be effected in the
institution to make it precisely what it now is, and,
therefore, at a very recent period (comparatively
speaking), the operative feature was abandoned, and
Freemasonry became wholly speculative. The exact
time of this change is not left to conjecture. It took
place in the reign of Queen Anne, of England, in the
beginning of the eighteenth century. Preston gives us
the very words of the decree which established this
change, for he says that at that time it was agreed to
''that the privileges of Masonry should no longer be
restricted to Operative Masons, but extend to men of
various professions, provided they were regularly ap-
proved and initiated into the Order."

The nineteen propositions here submitted contain a
brief but succinct view of the progress of Freemasonry
from its origin in the early ages of the world, simply as

20 Symbolism of Freemasonry

a system of religious philosophy, through all the modi-
fications to which it was submitted in the Jewish and
Gentile races, until at length it has developed to its
present perfected form. During all this time it pre-
served unchangeably certain features that may hence
be considered as its specific characteristics, by which it
has always been distinguished from every other con-
temporaneous association, however any such organi-
zation may have resembled it in outward form. These
characteristics are firstly, the doctrines which it has
constantly taught, namely that of the unity of God and
that of the immortality of the soul; and, secondly, the
manner in which these doctrines have been taught,
namely by symbols and allegories.

Taking these characteristics as the exponents of what
Freemasonry is, we cannot but arrive at the conclusion
that the speculative Freemasonry of the present day
exhibits abundant evidence of the identity of its origin
with the spurious Freemasonry of the ante-Solomonic
period, both systems coming from the same pure source,
but the one always preserving, and the other contin-
ually corrupting, the purity of the common fountain.
This is also the necessary conclusion as a corollary from
the propositions advanced in this essay.

There is also abundant evidence in the history, of
which these propositions are but a meagre outline, that
a manifest influence was exerted on the pure or primi-
tive Freemasonry of the Noachites by the Tyrian
branch of the spurious system, in the symbols, myths,
and legends which the former received from the latter,
but which it so modified and interpreted as to make
them consistent with its own religious system.

One thing, at least, is incapable of refutation. We
are indebted to the Tyrian Freemasons for the intro-

Origin and Progress of Freemasonry 21

duction of the symbol of Hiram Abif. The idea of the
symbol, although modified by the Jewish Freemasons, is
not Jewish in its inception. It was evidently borrowed
from the pagan mysteries, where Bacchus, Adonis, Pro-
serpine, and a host of other apotheosized beings play the
same role that Hiram does in the Masonic mysteries.

Lastly, we find in the technical terms of Freema-
sonry, in its working tools, in the names of its grades,
and in a large majority of its symbols, ample testimony
of the strong infusion into its religious philosophy of
the elements of an operative art. History explains
this fact by referring to the connection of the institution
with the Dionysiac Fraternity of Artificers, who were
engaged in building the temple of Solomon, with the
Workmen's Colleges of Numa, and with the Traveling
Freemasons of the middle ages who constructed all the
great buildings of that period.

These nineteen propositions which have been sub-
mitted in the present essay, constitute a brief summary
or outline of a theory of the true origin of Freemasonry,
which long and patient investigation has led us to
adopt. To attempt to prove the truth of each of these
propositions in its order by logical demonstration, or
by historical evidence, would involve the writing of an
elaborate treatise. They are now offered simply as
suggestions on which the Masonic student may ponder.
They are but intended as guide-posts which may direct
him in his journey should he undertake the pleasant
although difficult task of instituting an inquiry into the
origin and progress of Freemasonry from its birth to
its present state of full-grown manhood.

But even in this abridged form they are absolutely
necessary as preliminary to any true understanding of
the symbolism of Freemasonry.

CHAPTER THREE

NOACHID^

WE proceed, then, to inquire into the historical
origin of Freemasonry as a necessary intro-
duction to any inquiry into the character of its
symbolism. To do this with any expectation of ren-
dering justice to the subject, it is evident that we shall
have to take our point of departure at a very remote
era. We shall, however, review the early and ante-
cedent history of the institution with as much brevity
as a distinct understanding of the subject will admit.

Passing over all that is found within the ante-
diluvian^ history of the world, as something that ex-
erted, so far as our subject is concerned, no influence
on the new world which sprang forth from the ruins
of the old, we find soon after the cataclysm the imme-
diate descendants of Noah in the possession of at least
two religious truths which they received from their com-
mon father and which he must have derived from the
line of patriarchs who preceded him. These truths were
the doctrine of the existence of a Supreme Intelligence,
the Creator, Preserver, and Ruler of the Universe, and,
as a necessary consequence, the belief in the immor-
tality of the soul, which, as an emanation or flow from
that primal cause, was to be distinguished by a future
1 Before the Flood.

22

NOACHIDyE 23

and eternal life from the vile and perishable dust which
forms its earthly tabernacle.

"The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, if it
is a real advantage, follows unavoidably from the idea
of God. The best Being, He must will the best of good
things; the wisest y He must devise plansfor that effect;
the most powerful, He must bring it about. None can
deny this.^'^

The assertion that these doctrines were known to and
recognized by Noah will not appear as an assumption
to the believer in divine revelation. But any philo-
sophic mind must, we conceive, come to the same con-
clusion, independently of any other authority than that
of reason.

The religious sentiment, so far, at least, as it relates
to the belief in the existence of God, appears to be in
some sense innate, or instinctive, and consequently uni-
versal in the human mind.

*'This institution of religion, like society, friendship,
and marriage, comes out of a principle, deep and per-
manent in the heart: as humble, and transient, and
partial institutions come out of humble, transient, and
partial wants, and are to be traced to the senses and the
phenomena of life, so this sublime, permanent, and
useful institution came out from sublime, permanent,
and universal wants, and must be referred to the soul,
and the unchanging realities of life." ^

There is no record of any nation, however intel-
lectually and morally debased, that has not given some
evidence of a tendency to such belief. The sentiment
m.ay be perverted, the idea may be grossly corrupted,

* Theodore Parker, "Discourse of Matters pertaining to Religion,"
b. ii. ch. viii. p. 205.

* Parker, "Discourse of Religion," b. i. ch. i. p. 14.

24 Symbolism of Freemasonry

but it is nevertheless there, and shows the source
whence it sprang.

''The sages of all nations, ages, and religions had
some ideas of these sublime doctrines, though more or
less degraded, adulterated and obscured; and these
scattered hints and vestiges of the most sacred and
exalted truths were originally rays and emanations of
ancient and primitive traditions, handed down from
generation to generation, since the beginning of the
world, or at least since the fall of man, to all mankind."^

Even in the most debased forms of fetichism'^ where
the negro kneels in reverential awe before the shrine of
some uncouth and misshapen idol, which his own hands
perhaps have made, the act of adoration, degrading as
the object may be, is nevertheless an acknowledgment
of the longing need of the worshipper to throw himself
upon the support of some unknown power higher than
his own sphere. This unknown power, be it what it
may, is to him a God.

"In this form, not only the common objects above
enumerated, but gems, metals, stones that fell from
heaven, images, carved bits of wood, stuffed skins of
beasts, like the medicine-bags of the North American
Indians, are reckoned as divinities, and so become
objects of adoration. But in this case, the visible
object is idealized; not worshipped as the brute thing
really is, but as the type and symbol of God. ^

But just as universal has been the belief in the im-
mortality of the soul. This arises from the same longing

* Ramsay, "Philosophical Principles of Natural and Revealed
Religion," vol. ii. p. 8.

2 Some material object worshipped by savages as representing a
spirit.

^Parker, "Discourse of Religion," b. i. ch. v. p. 50.

NOACHIDiE 25

in man for the infinite. Although, like the former doc-
trine, it has been perverted and corrupted, there exists
among all nations a tendency to its acknowledgment.
Every people from the remotest times has wandered
involuntarily into the ideal of another world and sought
to find a place for their departed spirits. The deifica-
tion of the dead, man-worship, or hero-worship, the
next development of the religious idea after fetichism,
was simply an acknowledgment of the belief in a future
life; for the dead could not have been deified unless
after earthly death some element of them had continued
to live. The adoration of a putrid carcass would have
been a form of fetichism lower and more degrading
than any that has yet been discovered. But man-
worship came after fetichism. It was a higher develop-
ment of the religious sentiment, and included a possible
hope for — if not a positive belief in — a future life.

Reason, then, as well as revelation, leads us irre-
sistibly to the conclusion that these two doctrines pre-
vailed among the descendants of Noah, immediately
after the Deluge. They were believed, too, in all their
purity and integrity, because they were derived from
the highest and purest source.

These are the doctrines which still constitute the
creed of Freemasonry; and hence one of the names
bestowed upon the Freemasons from the earliest times
was that of the Noachidoe, or NoachiteSj that is to say,
the descendants of Noah, and the transmitters of his
religious dogmas.

CHAPTER FOUR
Primitive Freemasonry of Antiquity

THE next important historical epoch which de-
mands our attention is that connected with what
in sacred history is known as the dispersion at
Babel. The brightness of truth, as it had been com-
municated by Noah, became covered, as it were, with a
cloud. The dogmas of the unity of God and the im-
mortality of the soul were lost sight of, and the first
deviation from the true worship occurred in the estab-
lishment of Sabianism, or the worship of the sun,
moon, and stars, among some peoples, and the deifica-
tion of men among others.

Of these two deviations, Sabianism, or sun-worship,
was both the earlier and the more generally diffused.
''It seems," says the learned Owen, "to have had its
rise from some broken traditions conveyed by the
patriarchs touching the dominion of the sun by day
and of the moon by night." The mode in which this
old system has been modified and spiritually symbolized
by Freemasonry will be the subject of future consider-
ation.

A recent writer thus eloquently refers to the uni-
versality, in ancient times, of sun-worship: *' Sabianism,
the worship of light, prevailed amongst all the leading
nations of the early world. By the rivers of India,

26

Primitive Freemasonry op Antiquity 27

on the mountains of Persia, in the plains of Assyria,
early mankind thus adored the higher spirits in each
country rising in spiritual thought from the solar orb
up to Him whose vicegerent it seems — to the Sun of
all being, whose divine light irradiates and purifies the
world of soul, as the solar radiance does the world of
sense. Egypt, too, though its faith be but dimly
known to us, joined in this worship; Syria raised her
grand temples to the sun; the joyous Greeks sported
with the thought while feeling it, almost hiding it under
the mythic individuality which their lively fancy super-
imposed upon it. Even prosaic China makes offerings
to the yellow orb of day; the wandering Celts and
Teutons held feasts to it, amidst the primeval forests
of Northern Europe; and, with a savagery character-
istic of the American aborigines, the sun temples of
Mexico streamed with human blood in honor of the
beneficent orb.*'^

"There is no people whose religion is known to us,"
says the Abbe Banier, "neither in our own continent
nor in that of America, that has not paid the sun a
religious worship, if we except some inhabitants of the
torrid zone, who are continually cursing the sun for
scorching them with his beams. "^

Macrobius, in his Saturnalia, undertakes to prove that
all the gods of Paganism may be reduced to the sun.

But Sabianism, while it was the most ancient of the
religious corruptions, was as we have said the most
generally diffused. Hence, even among nations which
afterwards adopted the polytheistic creed of deified
men and factitious or artificial gods, this ancient sun-